McCain’s White Privilege

Much was made of an earlier post, titled “White Privilege” that was written by Tim Wise. This is a follow-up to that posts that poses a few questions regarding how the candidates would be perceived if their circumstances were switched.

What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?

What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?

What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was a divorcee?

What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severe disfiguring car accident?

What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?

What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?

What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)

What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter?

What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?

What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?

What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution?

What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?

Educational Background:
Barack Obama:

Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.

Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude

Joseph Biden:

University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.

Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)

vs.

John McCain:

United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:

Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester

North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study

University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism

Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester

University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism

I’m particularly anxious to hear from anybody who thinks that Obama would still be a viable candidate if he had the same record as McCain.

The “values” Klanservatives would have much to say about the moral repugnancy of those inferior types.

Ben R

13 November, 2008, 23:33

The trouble is with this focus on privilege that the discussion supresses the considerable evidence that groups differ in average ability.

By ignoring these factors, we risk demonising successful groups, as happened to the Armenian Jews or Jews in Germany. Also the Chinese in Mayaysia.

We know in terms of evolution, that groups exposed to different environmental pressures may develop distinct genetic traits. This is clear in athletics.

In terms of academic ability, it is quite clear that Ashkenazi Jews & East Asians, on average, outperform whites.

For example, in Brazil, it is the Japanese who are the highest-achieving group. They were brought in as indentured labourers to work the plantations after slavery was abolished in 1888. Yet, today, the Japanese outscore Whites on IQ tests. Seven studies of Jews in Britain yield a median IQ of 110. In educational achievement, East Asians in Britain also outperform the indigenous Whites. Similarly in Australia, East Asians (mostly Chinese and Vietnamese) average higher than Whites in IQ, educational achievement, and earnings. There are pockets of ethnic Chinese elsewhere in the world such as in Mexico, Argentina, and especially Hawaii, where they also do well.

These results are remarkably consistent over time, place, and situation, irrespective of the original status of the people, or the language, history, and political organization of the country concerned

@Ben-
Switch around the races, and that sounds like something straight out the Hitler Handbook.

Ben R

23 November, 2008, 22:31

“@Ben-
Switch around the races, and that sounds like something straight out the Hitler Handbook.” Actually Hitler got rid of IQ tests because Jewish Germans performed above average on them. In this respect, his actions were actually dysgenic in attacking the smartest group.

Can you see the danger though of the strict environmental position that assumes that differences are all due to discrimination or unfairness? This is what lead to the Armenian Jews & Chinese in Malaysia being persecuted. Individual rights need to apply, and acknowledging these groups do better (on average, there is overlap amongst groups) does not mean otherwise.

Ben R

23 November, 2008, 22:58

Further to my post above, equal rights are not dependent on equal ability.

Antigrammatik

4 December, 2008, 20:06

So following your logic I can safely come to other conclusions. Similar to Chinese people being smarter as evidenced by their IQ scores, black people are more criminal because there’s more of them in jail.